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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

My experience has been that the
best thing for keeping a grill in good condition is frequent use. Buy
two identical grills and store them the same way. Use one 2-3 times a
week and one 2-3 times a year. The frequently used one will last longer
in most cases. I think that is because the neglected grill is not
seasoned so it rusts out and falls apart sooner. A well seasoned grill
is like a well oiled machine, it performs better and lasts longer.

But
at some point, seasoning becomes gunk and gunk is not good. Gunk is
built up grease, old food, and bits of who knows what. It builds up in
corner, cracks and on the bottom of grates and it has to be removed.

My normal cleaning routine is:

Scrub top and bottom of grates while cold with wire brush.

Preheat grill, allowing grates to get hot and burn off crud.

Scrub top of grates while hot with wire brush.

This does good but still
allows build up to occur.. I don't like to use chemical solvents
because they strip off all seasoning and will leave their own residue.
The only way to get rid of it is a lot of dirty scraping and a hefty
application of "elbow grease".

So I was excited when the Reliable Corporation offered me a chance to use their Enviromate Pronto P7 portable steam cleaner to clean my grills. Could I have found the magic bullet to eliminate the physical work of cleaning a grill?

Product Description

The P7 Enviromate Pronto is a portable steam cleaner that uses pulses of 245f steam to help clean and sanitize surfaces.

It
comes with multiple attachments including wire brush, nylon brushes,
window/glass tool, upholstery tool, and more. It has an ergonomic
design that fit both my hands and Alexis' smaller hands. Even when
filled with water, it is light enough to use for prolonged use, which is
a good thing because we used it for a full afternoon.

Product Trials

Cleaning
Grill Exterior - The outside of my Big Green Egg has some crazing and
over the years the dimples have collected a dark build up. I have tried
several detergents and solutions to clean it with limited success.

We put on one of the nylon brushes and started steam scrubbing the Egg.

It removed a lot of the dark spots. It wasn't perfect but it definitely did better than anything else we have tried.

On
my Smoke Hollow grill/smoker, the rails that hold the grates often have
grease pool up on them. Usually I have to use a putty knife to scrape
it off with marginal results. The Enviromate helped power through the
film of grease that the knife left behind.

My
Egg table had a rust stain on the tile top from when I left a cast iron
tool on it. I had planned to buy some CLR to get rid of the stain but
used the Enviromate with a nylon brush instead. It disappeared.

Cleaning
Grill Grates - I pulled out my Craycort cast iron grate from my Egg
and the grates from the charcoal grill on my Smoke Hollow combo cooker.
We used the hose and brass brush attachments for this job.

As you can see, the Smoke Hollow grates were also in grimy condition.

The hose and long electrical cord made this job easier.

Test Results

The
gunk didn't just magically fall off by just pointing the Enviromate at
it. We still had to apply some physical effort and get a little
dirty.

But
as you can see, the Enviromate got the grates very clean and as an
added bonus - sanitized. My normal wire brush doesn't do that.

I thought we were done for the day but Alexis was just getting started with the Enviromate Pronto. She took it inside and...

used it to
clean out and sanitize the microwave, worked like a champ! You couldn't
even tell that we have a 14 y/o that using the microwave when we were
through.

The Pronto got our range top as clean as it has been since it was brand new.

This part is pretty gross. There is this gap
between the oven and range top that lets stuff get in but won't let a
rag through to clean it. The hot steam penetrated and cleared it out.
As the 245f hit the long term "stuff" in there, it smelled like soup was
cooking. Yeah, like I said, gross.

She used the other nylon brush to steam clean the grout between tiles.

Since our initial
tests a few weeks ago, we have also used the Pronto with the upholstery
attachment to clean a sofa and chair. We have used it to clean and
sanitize bathrooms. You know the vent hood on your microwave that gets
a greasy film on it over time? It wiped that right away in just a few
seconds.

It
does a fantastic job of cutting through built up grime and cleaning
hard to access places. Plus it is comforting knowing that it is not
only clean but sterile too.

Long story short - would I buy the Enviromate Prontosolely
to clean my grills? No. But I would absolutely pay the retail price
of about $100 (I checked online retailers) to have it to clean in and
around the house including my grills.

8 comments:

I borrowed a friends big steam cleaner a few weeks back to clean the car mats, my grands did a number on them, and it worked great but was big and bulky. I think I'll get one of these - I like that it's little! About your grill grates...have you ever put them in a plastic bag with ammonia? Put them in the bag, add 1/4 cup ammonia and seal it up and leave them overnight. In the morning there won't be one speck of gunk anywhere...the vapors eat it off...or gremlins, not sure which, but it works like a charm!

This ia a multi task tool. I hope you have a different brush when you steam clean your car engine. Does it have an attachment for vegetable steaming? You hit the nail on the head with frequent use a grill grate will become well conditioned.

Great review and looks like a great product. I had one of those years ago. I think it was made by Shark, but I can't remember now or what happened to it. The great thing is that no harsh chemicals are used.